Ice's Story
by Dancing Tiger
Summary: A short story that shares Ice's story. David McGraw, you've seen him as Ice in Caught In The Crossfire. But who was he before the ice stole his heart and soul? What was his home away from home? Who was his family? And what happened the day the Russians captured him?


I shifted nervously in front of the door, holding back all of my instincts that told me to pace, or to move in some way. The oak paneled door loomed before me, a monster. The captain never had called anyone to his office to talk personally unless it was bad news. I knew he was a pretty solitary man, and only came out of his office unless he had to, and being called in was like entering the den of a lion. I rubbed my sweating palms on the fabric of my pants. I was about to go get a quick drink to soothe my suddenly dry throat, when the deep and hearty voice of the captain called for me. I tried to swallow one last time before I opened the door.

I had only ever been in the office once before, when I was first admitted into the more elite rankings of the Rangers. He had scared me then, and scared me now. His scarred and rough face loomed like a grizzly who had been angered. His broad shoulders were only emphasized by the way his shirt strained against him, and the deep red desk stood out in the light colored, rather plain room. He cleared his throat as I shut the door carefully and slowly behind me, hearing it close with a menacing click.

I stepped forward a bit, and felt a chill run up my spine. His stone grey eyes ran me over once, and then seemed to stare me down. I stood there in silence for what seemed like forever, before he spoke.

"Sergeant David Tobias McGraw. Or, as I know you prefer to be called, Wolf." He stated it like a fact, not a question at all. But by the way he looked at me; I knew he wanted me to speak. I ditched my last attempt to make my mouth moist and answered quickly and sharply.

"Yes sir." He gave a curt approving nod, and then waited once more before speaking. Feeling a bead of cold sweat run down the back of my neck, I questioned whether he was actually thinking, or just wanting to make me suffer. He took a deep breath, his massive shoulders rising and falling once before he continued.

"You aren't a perfect soldier. You aren't even the best here. Not by a long shot. But you don't suck either. Do you understand this?" I willed my shaking knees to stop their trembling, but managed to answer quickly enough, despite what he said confusing me.

"Yes sir, I understand." He didn't even nod this time, just inhaled deeply once again. His fingers drummed against the desk, missing a beat. I knew why, and didn't even bother to look at the missing portion of his middle finger. I kept looking into his eyes, trying not to back away as the flight part of fight or flight screamed at me. His eyes ran me over once again, and then suddenly, his gaze softened a bit. I was rather surprised by the sudden way the shield of menacing gray was dropped, but now he might have even held fondness in his gaze. I prayed that my whole body would freeze, and not show an ounce of surprise to him. His words were still stern, but seemed softer somehow.

"Yes, I know you know this. You aren't the best with accuracy, and you might not be the strongest. You aren't the fastest, and you don't have the most stamina. We have Cheetah for accuracy. If he wasn't gifted in close combat, I would have him as a sniper. Goblin is where we have the strength. He could bench press two of you, no sweat. Steel is hands down the fastest, you know that. As for Onyx, he could run the course all day long. But you, you have something that none of them have. You actually have a few things none of them have. The first is, that you know all of this. You know you aren't the best, but that doesn't matter to you. You don't give up on trying to get better, become one of the best. You also are a born leader Wolf. You might not think like that, but the others, they look to you. You are all the same rank, equals in the field, but you seem not to have even noticed I put you in the lead of most missions. You have the aura of a born leader, and have no hesitation. We really need more men like you Wolf." I sat there, stunned, trying to take in all that I had just heard. It was a pretty sly way to compliment, putting it in with things most men would judge as insults. But I knew better than that, and heard the underlying comments that actually praised me. I knew that some surprise must have crossed my face, but I was confident that most of my face had remained calm. I opened my mouth to respond, but the captain cut me off.

"I'm not done Wolf. You also have the strongest willpower I have ever seen. I swear, no matter what we put you through, you won't break. You don't give up in tough situations, and don't show any more emotion than necessary. You can be put through the mill all fucking day, and come sunset, you would keep on going if you had to. This is why I am promoting you to Staff Sergeant." My jaw would have dropped if I had lost all willpower right then, but I managed to keep in enough control to answer. I couldn't believe that I had just been moved up a rank. I had done nothing big, or nothing substantial. I had truly been unprepared for this in every way. I swallowed, trying not to collapse in shock or jump for joy.

"Thank you sir. I will try to live up to your expectations sir." The captain let the corner of his lip lift a little bit, his version of a full blown smile. He pulled out a piece of paper from under a stack of folders and laid it on the desk in front of him. He jabbed a finger at it, and I looked. It was a map of a forest area, with a large red circle around a small bit of the edge. He looked back up at me as soon as I was done quickly surveying it. He cleared his throat again, then continued to speak. Any warmness that had been in his voice was gone, and he was back to the cold, commanding captain.

"And I have the perfect chance for you to prove yourself. We believe that the ultranationalists have a weapon cache here, and we want you and the others to go in and destroy it and any Russians who might be there, tomorrow afternoon. This is important, I hope you know that." I cleared my throat, already processing a plan in my head. The others of course meant the little five man team that was composed of me, Cheetah, Goblin, Steel, and Onyx. We were the captain's 'pets,' so to speak. At least, that is what everyone else thought of us as. We just thought of ourselves as the more elite group. But that didn't matter. I responded to the captain quickly.

"Yes sir, I know it is important and I will be sure to do it right." The captain glared at me with a fire in his eyes.

"You know that there are no screw ups in this? That you run the risk of being captured, and tortured? This will be one of the most dangerous missions yet. This base has so many important things on it, that if its location was given away, it would be devastating." I was somewhat confused at why the captain was going over this. Every mission was dangerous, and we always ran that risk. And this base, I knew was one of the ones with the most data on the soldiers and locations of secret bases across Russia. I responded as best I could, try not to let confusion seep into my voice.

"Of course! You can count on me sir!" The captain nodded to me, then pointed to the door. I nodded, and exited as quickly as I could, but took care not to let the door slam behind me. As soon as it was shut, I pumped my fist into the air. I was now a staff sergeant! I quickly rushed back to the barracks to tell the others.

I burst in to find the four playing cards on the folding table we had smuggled into the room. They looked at me, and Cheetah cocked his head as he saw my face, which much have been painted in a huge smile. Cheetah was probably my best friend out of the whole group, but they were all close as brothers to me. Cheetah and I had similar last names, so we had been together all throughout training, making us grow very close. Goblin stood up, and put his cards down. Cheetah was the first to speak.

"What's making you so happy? Did you win the lottery, or are they serving brownies in the mess hall? Come on, spill it!" I shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing, but I knew there was no hiding my excitement.

"Well, I just got promoted to Staff Sergeant!" The rest of them stood up, and came over to congratulate me. Cheetah wrapped me in an embrace, while Onyx and Steel patted me on the back. Goblin waited for cheetah to step back before he gave me a quick hug. The great thing about these guys is they didn't seethe or wallow in jealousy, but rather, were genuinely happy for me. After a round of congratulations was passed around, I sat down to play cards with them. An hour or so later I told them of our mission tomorrow. They took it in and we decided that it would be best for us to get some sleep tonight if the mission was really going to be as hard as the captain said. I helped pack up the cards, and then we all went to bed.

The next morning I woke up to find the other four already gone, their beds made and empty. I got up, stretched, and suddenly, the events of the previous day rushed up to me. Not only had I been promoted, but I had a mission today. My feet hit the ground and I slipped into my boots as quickly as I could. Eager to get warmed up for the day, I flung to door open. To my surprise, I accidentally ran directly into Cheetah.

I took a step back after a quick apology. Cheetah only shook his head, stepping back to let me out into the hall. I looked at his face in puzzlement. His cheeks had streaks from drying tears, and his eyes were puffy and red. His mouth was turned into a downcast frown.

"What's up?" I asked, putting a loose arm around his shoulder and steering him outside, towards the track. He only shook his head again, not saying a word. I prodded his side with a finger.

"Come on man. Something has to be upsetting you. I don't see you cry all that often. What is it? You know you can tell me anything, right?" Cheetah only nodded, which made me have a slight bit of discomfort stir in my gut. It was unease that filled me at how he shaken up he seemed. Only after a moment he responded.

"I don't know really. Just have been feeling really homesick. It's nothing really, but I thought you wouldn't mind getting up, so I was coming to get you." I smiled, and we stepped out into the light. I rolled my shoulders back, hearing them crack as I finished stretching out. In an attempt to turn his sullen and sad mood around, I thought it would be a good idea to suggest that he run with me.

"Hey, Cheetah, wanna go on a mile long run? Warm us up for this afternoon?" He gave an uncaring shrug. I grabbed his shoulders from behind and shoved him onto the track. We started up a light jog, and about ten minutes later, I realized we had gone enough over a mile. Not even out of breath, I slowed down, and waited for Cheetah to as well. Without a word we walked back to the barracks to start getting ready for this afternoon, when a thought suddenly struck me. I turned to Cheetah, noting briefly with a flash of worry he still looked down.

"Hey, where are the others? I haven't seen them all morning." He only shrugged.

"I think they went to the infirmary. Must have eaten something weird, at least that's what I remember Goblin telling me. They'll be fine for later though." I smiled and let out a relieved sigh. I was always glad to know my brothers were all right.

About two hours later I was in a helicopter on its way to the edge of the forest that I had seen on the map. Explaining the battle plan to my team had been easy enough, and they all agreed. Even though I was a higher ranking know, I made sure to let them know I thought of us all as equals. Squished between Cheetah and Onyx, I checked my watch. We should arrive in the next ten minutes. I nudged Cheetah next to me, who was being uncharacteristically silent. Actually, everyone was extremely silent and sullen. A few of them even glanced my direction. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Hey, what's up? Are you all feeling okay?" Goblin shrugged, and Cheetah only nodded. I could feel my face set into a frown, worry stirring within me. Usually they were hyped up and ready to go, but today they seemed a bit off. I shook it off as pre mission jitters. Even the most hardy soldier got them every once in a while, and I couldn't blame them. We didn't usually have missions so vague. Destroy as much intel and enemies as possible was as about as vague as it got. I forced a smile onto my lips.

"It's fine guys, we'll do great. We all know the plan, and this whole thing will go without a hitch. In a few more hours, we'll all be in the mess hall having some beer, or some tea for you Steel!" I gently joked about the man's strict no drinking policy, but Steel didn't even crack a smile. Rather, the other four in the aircraft with me exchanged glances, and the discomfort in the space was suffocating. I had the distinct feeling they knew something I didn't, but shook it off as I felt the helicopter begin to descend. Within seconds we were leaping out and rushing into the small row of ramshackle buildings. I took the one to the left with Onyx right on my tail, leaving the other three to the others.

I kicked the door open, and quickly shot down the three men in my sights. Onyx went in right after me, and I nearly froze when I saw just how many computers lined the space. I didn't hesitate to start cramming the screens and hard drives with bullets, shattering the monitors. Onyx finished up some of the last few as I pulled a grenade out of my pocket, and pulled the pin. We ran out quickly, hearing the massive explosion behind us, and I knew then that we had been successful. Cheetah and the others emerged from the small building next to the one we had just blown up, and went over to us.

"Nothing in that place." Cheetah reported hastily. We moved down the line of buildings quickly, running into relatively low enemy fire, and taking care of anything in sight. With a final explosion in a stash of weapons, I checked my watch. It was just about time for exfil to be arriving. I motioned for them to regroup and started moving towards the extraction point. We set out at a light jog, but we all dropped to the ground immediately as gunfire came whizzing past us in a deadly thunder. I turned and shot with all my might, making sure the men that had appeared from the trees dropped to the ground like broken toys. Just when I thought that the last man had fallen, more came rushing out of the woods. I swore, and as more crackling and thunder filled the air I yelled to my team.

"Come on, follow me! Quickly you bitches!" Glancing around, and I saw the helicopter that was here to get us out coming in from a distance. The only point where it could get us was over a hundred yards away. I leaped to my feet, and shooting back as I ran led the four men to sparse cover behind a car. I crouched there next to Goblin, hearing his breath coming in short pants. The gunfire coming from the enemy slowly fizzled to a stop, and the sound of footsteps came pounding towards us. I swore heavily, and got back to my feet. I shot at the men I saw approaching and motioned to the others to follow. I ran heavily, shooting as I did so, making sure that Cheetah, Goblin, Steel, and Onyx were all in front of me. Letting out a howl of frustration I yelled to them.

"They almost have us!" It was true, as they didn't seem intent on lethal shots anymore. The only fire that came from them was occasional, and the bullets never seemed to hit us. I heard the pounding of helicopter blades, and saw that the aircraft was coming down towards us. Relief filled me as we got closer and closer, and even more Russians dropped to the ground in pools of red.

"Great, exfil is here! Go, get in, they're on our tails, come on, get in!" They seemed hesitant to board the aircraft, and I yelled at them to get in. The enemy was closing in with frightening speed, and I knew I could only hold them back for so long. I heard four bodies clamber in, and I turned around for a brief moment. I threw my gun in so I could climb in with more ease, but I found that suddenly Cheetah's body was in the way of me getting in. I looked up at him to see tears streaking his face. I yelled up to him as I felt a bullet ping off the metal of the helicopter, and another one struck the ground close to my foot.

"Help me in, quick! What the hell Cheetah?" He looked down on me and another tear slipped from his eyes. Goblin yelled to the pilot to start going, that we were all clear. I latched my hands onto the side of the helicopter. Goblin pushed me away with a quick shove once Cheetah had moved a bit. Frustration and fear crept up on me as the footsteps were more audible now.

"Goblin, what the fuck are you doing?" Cheetah looked down at me, and I saw the faces of Onyx and Steel were turned away. Goblin even had tears running down his face. Cheetah yelled a few words over the sound of the helicopter as it slowly lifted away.

"I'm sorry brother!" I jumped for the opening once more time, but hands pushed my fingers away. I dropped to the ground, and I looked up in despair. Fear like I had never felt struck into me as I realized I had no weapons, and the Russians were seconds away. I yelled up to them in a last ditch attempt to get rescued.

"Please, don't leave! I'm still here! Don't go! They'll get me!" I knew I sounded like a child, but the black aircraft just got farther and farther away. Hands came down on me from behind, and I was quickly shoved down to the ground and beaten. I yelled in protest.

"No, no, leave me alone you bastards! Get off of me!" I looked up through the hands that were beating me down and saw the last of the helicopter disappear over the tree line, when suddenly my whole world went dark.


End file.
